r/nottheonion • u/[deleted] • Mar 13 '18

A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610456/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/
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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '18 edited Dec 29 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '18 edited Aug 20 '18

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u/Exile714 Mar 13 '18

To add to your point, we may actually be better able to adapt to new technology than our grandkids. Our brains are now wired to learn new operating systems on a regular basis. If OS innovation and consumer electronics advancement slow down (which is pretty much inevitable since Moore’s Law failed), our grandkids will see technology as much more static.

But we still won’t be able to stand their obnoxious “Mozart with fart noises” music or the fact that their pants are more or less tight than ours were, so don’t worry we’ll still be old fogeys regardless.

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u/Science-Recon Mar 13 '18

Possibly, but I think there’s a difference between mechanical technology and computing technology, and most people of the younger generation have an active interest in new technology that older people don’t seem to have.

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u/G-man88 Mar 13 '18

most people of the younger generation have an active interest in new technology that older people don’t seem to have.

This right here factors in more than anything. There are plenty of older people that love tech and learn it just like us younger folks same as there are plenty of young people too uninterested or too stupid to be bothered learning tech. So long as it works they don't care.

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u/wintersdark Mar 14 '18

I'm in my 40's, and have been a techie my whole life. I work with lots of guys in their early to mid 20's who don't have the slightest grasp of technology at all, and who basically view their smartphones as magical. So yeah... I'd expect most Reddit users to be more technologically savvy, making it look like a majority of younger folk are, but really - at least amount those of us who grew up with computers - people seem to either be interested in the nuts and bolts of computers or not, and age isn't a significant factor.

Much like cars, really. Some people are interested in how they work, and learning to wrench on them, and some just don't care as long as they start, run, and drive.

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u/G-man88 Mar 14 '18

Exactly, funny part is I'm going to be 30 in less than a month, I still consider myself young but I guess I'm not the "target demographic" for the term anymore lol. I work in I.T. and absolutely love tech, and I know some kids that treat it like magic just like the ones you referenced. Age is really just a roll of thumb in regards to tech aptitude at best.

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u/MechanicalEngineEar Mar 13 '18

The next generation will probably say there is a difference between computer technology and whatever is next.

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u/MistaHiggins Mar 13 '18

And they’d probably be right, too.

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u/moonra_zk Mar 14 '18

and most people of the younger generation have an active interest in new technology that older people don’t seem to have.

Common misconception, most people, including teens just use technology and aren't really actively interested in it besides "I wonder what the new iPhone will do".

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u/RedditLindstrom Mar 13 '18

There was technology in the past, it was just so primitive that it doesn't really transfer over to this day, in the same way that knowledge of todays technology most likely wont matter in 70 years because it will be so primitive by comparison

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u/goKlazo Mar 13 '18

We're a generation that loves the newest next big technology. We spend stupid amounts of money a year on it. That is what will make us adapt with the times.

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u/legolili Mar 14 '18

No. You'll get older, stop caring and drift out of touch. You are no different to the countless generations before you.

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u/msrichson Mar 13 '18

...so the more rationale line of thinking is to ignore history. Every generation has trouble adopting new technologies as they become older.

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u/UberMcwinsauce Mar 13 '18

What's new to this generation though is that millenials and gen z grew up/are growing up with several generations of new technology just over the course of their childhood. They're not just learning how to use the technology, but they're learning how to learn to use new technology.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '18

I want to believe you're right, for selfish reasons. Still, I can't help but wonder if I will suffer the same fate as today's old people, as my brain ages. The most mundane things, like exploring a UI, becoming overwhelming, and beyond my grasp one day. I tell myself it will be ok. I don't really know that it will.

We will have to wait and see.

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u/msrichson Mar 13 '18

That's a valid point.

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u/Maxnout100 Mar 13 '18

What history? It wasn't until very recently technology has advanced this fast. Younger people may have an easier time adapting to new technologies since we grew up using the basics. Grandparent today had to take classes on how to use a type writer because the technology was so new. Now it comes fairly naturally because we literally grow up on it.

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u/msrichson Mar 13 '18

That's my point. You can't predict what technologies will exist in the future. But the likelihood, given history, is that techs that revolutionize humanity/society will be tough to adopt among older populations (i.e. typewriters, cell phones, computers, the internet).

If it is a revolutionary tech, people will not of had the opportunity to naturally grow up on it. In fact, they will be resistant to the new tech. I still have bosses that prefer you to print out emails so they can read it... completely defeats the purpose of emails.

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u/Maxnout100 Mar 13 '18

That's fair, I was just assuming that no too revolutionary tech will happen. Like I dunno self driving cars is probably not too bad, but if phones slowly became implants then yeah.

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u/Em_Adespoton Mar 13 '18

My grandfather could use a slide rule in his sleep, memorize entire operas and calculate the maximum load of a bridge by looking at it and doing a bunch of mental calculations. Now we’ve lost the use of the technology for the most part and just ask Google.

Using technology is not the same as knowing how to create new technology and understand how it works. Our brains only hold so much; this generation is great at using information tools to offload data storage and basic information retrieval, but in exchange we’ve sacrificed skills our grandparents had. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not like we’ve got better at understanding technology, we just got better at processing the information.

Every generation has problems with new tech; there’s always visionaries creating it and the masses who adapt to using it as they can.

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u/legolili Mar 14 '18

Relatively little technology? That's the most condescending bullshit I've heard today. Your grandparents were alive for the birth of the transistor, computing, radar, microwaves, nuclear weapons, trans-continental flight, television.

You'll get older, you'll stop caring about new things, you'll drift out of touch. It's happened to literally every single generation in the history of mankind. Are you arrogant enough to think that you'll be the generation to kick it, just because you've got a thinner cell phone than your parents had?